The Kitchen Staple That You Can Use To Tidy Up Your Car

Dust accumulates in your car, but most people only think about it in their houses. It's just one more place to worry about needing to tidy. Cleaning dust in your car isn't especially different from clearing it in your home, though the main difference is that a car's cabin has a lot more nooks and crannies for dust to get trapped in that you might not be able to reach. What's the best way to give it a proper dusting? You might find the answer next to your morning cup of coffee.

A surprisingly excellent form of dust removal can be found in the form of disposable, paper coffee filters. The whole purpose of a coffee filter, after all, is to trap small particulates and only allow liquids through, right? Well, not only is it great for separating your morning brew from its bean-y confines, it's also great for grabbing and trapping dust in tricky spots. Coffee filters are made up of densely-packed fibers that are both highly absorbent and, more importantly, lint-free. Unlike a rag, for instance, a coffee filter can be used to capture dust without leaving any additional particulates behind.

You can clean your car's surfaces with a coffee filter the same way you would use a shammy or microfiber cloth. Just gently wipe the surface with the filter to pick up as much dust as you can, and when you can't fit any more dust on there, throw it away. Coffee filters come in big packs, so you can dust your car's entire interior with just that.

If there's a tight nook that you can't quite reach, such as your AC vents, between the seats, or in the seams of the dash, you can either twist a filter around your finger to make it more thin and pointy, or just insert it into a nook sideways. Just run the filter through the cracks a few times, because it's dust city.

Finally, if you're dealing with some particularly stubborn dust spots on your car, you can enhance a filter's dust-grabbing powers by adding a couple of drops of olive oil. Not only will this increase the amount of dust it picks up, it'll give the surfaces of your car a nice sheen. Only use a couple of drops, though – too much oil, and you might leave residue on the dash, which will end up attracting even more dust.